King Crimson!

The Larks'-Starless-Red and Discipline-Beat-TOAPP incarnations already mark King Crimson as one of my favorite bands of all time. (The other one is Gentle Giant.) But having heard In The Court of the Crimson King, THRAK, and The Power to Believe, those versions of the band are also excellent (although I've never really thought their first album lives up to the hype). 

My third or second favorite band ever, just fighting over the second spot with The Beatles. The Beatles were (and probably are) one of the most influential acts and were my first musical love, but the Crims have enough powerful material in their catalogue to best The Fab Four. 

There is only one Crimson album - the first. The rest are Fripp and friends. Always worth a listen, but not the same thing as THAT band.

It's strange how influential an album In the Court of the Crimson King is and yet at the same time how dated the style sounds. The first time I listened to it in the 1980s, I just didn't get it. I new how seminal an album it was supposed to be before I bought it, and could hear the musicianship immediately when I played it, but the strength of it's influence was a mystery to me. I've come to the view that the way one is able to appreciate the album in latter times is not the same as the way one is able to appreciate it when it first came out.

OK I appreciate it more now after live performances of In the Court by Steve Hackett with Wetton and McDonald and later by Greg Lake. But I still find it hard to imagine the magical experience that others claim (including Steve Hackett) In the Wake of Poseidon is strangely derivative of the first album with a Twilight Zone kind of deja vous. I listened to Island and Lizard once each and didn't like them. I promise I will give them another listen.

Lark's Tongue in Aspic is absolutely magnificent. If that album was released 1969, I think the influence of Crimson would have been even greater. Starless and Bible Black is also one of my favorites. I never cared for the stripped down sound of Red although there are still some good things on it.

Discipline is as good as Lark's Tongue to me. Beat and Three of a Perfect Pair are too commercial for me.

Thrak and other more recent works were nice I thought. At a time in the nineties when Grunge artists were doing dissonance intuitively, Crimson actually almost fit in in a way, I thought.

i'm psyched to see Belew, Levin and Mastelotto in a few weeks.  :)

Edited by peskypesky - July 01 2012 at 17:45

darkshade wrote: resurrection wrote: There is only one Crimson album - the first. The rest are Fripp and friends. What about the second album?

With that list, i'm not sure how they can be one of your favorite bands. 

King Crimson has never had an album where every song made me go "WOW" the whole time. But seriously they make me say "wow" a lot more than most bands.

I'm absolutely in love with Crimson, and I love everything they've done. But my album rankings seem to be a little off.